Imagine a heavenly bank where the Holy Spirit sits ready to dispense any and every resource of heaven. Believers have the ability to step up to the teller’s window and withdraw endless reserves of God’s grace, power, faith and hope.
Many in the church make a lot of deposits but they don’t make nearly as many withdrawals. Instead, they step up to the window and ask for a mere pittance. “Lord, I don’t want to bother you, but I need just a little grace to get me through this present problem. If you can just get me going, I can handle the rest.” What? They don’t want to bother their heavenly Father? Well, God doesn’t want them to “handle the rest,” he wants to do it for them.
God wants us to deposit everything to him: our anxieties, struggles, sins and heartaches. And then he wants us to draw on his infinite resources, which are stored up for us in his vaults. He longs for us to say, “Lord, I’m finished asking for just a small amount of faith to get me through a problem. I need your grace in abundance! And I need more of your life, your breath, your movement within me.”
The prophet Zechariah was seeing down through history to our day when he wrote these words.
“On that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the Lord who goes before them!” (Zechariah 12:8).
Because of Christ’s work for us, even the weakest Christian will be as strong as David, Israel’s greatest king. And the strongest believer will “be like God,” meaning, like Christ. It sounds outlandish, but in this prophecy God gives us an image of the resources he has made available to his church. The reserves of heaven’s bank are meant to pour out on us to his great glory, especially during our times of trial.
No matter how great your need, I urge you to go to the teller’s window and make a withdrawal. Ask God to supply you with his healing and restoring power — and then keep asking. He is pleased with your faith and he will be faithful to make his glory known in your situation, astounding the world around you.